(Please note the sarcasm.) Wakizashi has just let me know that it is not an iBook that he got me; that is, apprantely, the old model. This is, rather, what they call a MacBook.
I say we just stick with MacTop (a word I made so I wouldn’t have to distinguish between the different kinds of portable Macs anyway) and leave it at that!
I’m sure he’ll be happy I’ve cleared up the error. Or, probably not!
Yay! It’s my birthday! Guess what I got for my birthday… Go ahead, guess! You won’t believe it!
Yep, it’s a MacTop (otherwise known as an iBook). Wakizashi got me my very own iBook! I LOVE that man!
Now I can go take the iBook photo off my vision board. That’s pretty darn cool.
I suppose that I’m relatively childish when it comes to birhdays. I don’t really know why that is. I just can’t help myself. The day means so much to me about who I am and my value. I actually like to take the time to think about what I’m doing and where I’m going on my birthday. I can’t think of a better time to sit back and assess how true my external life is being to the internal me.
This year I know that I really am walking my life with integrity. Integrity is immensely important to me: personally and in my business, so I’ve been making an actual effort for the last few months to check myself and make sure that I’m being really true.
Which is why this year I’m not so inclined to overview how much of who I am is really showing through (something I’ve always needed to focus on in the past - learning to be yourself really is hard work), so much as how wisely I’ve been using my time and what direction I’m heading in. Where do I want to go, and am I on the right path to take me there?
I figure if I can’t have candles and streamers and lots of birthday presents (no, I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow that) then I should find someway to use the day meaningfully. Besides, we all need a kind of personal review to help us keep the course we’ve set out to follow; otherwise it’s in our nature to drift.
Now, I think my MacTop and I are going to pack up and go to Starbucks, maybe go MacTop bag shopping; after I have a shower (not the MacTop though, that would make Wakizashi very angry).
Only one more day till my birthday! (Have you got me a present yet?) Ok, no, that was rude to ask, I know that (I wouldn’t be offended if you had gotten me one though).
Actually, today is Wakizashi and my’s 10th Wedding Anniversary. Hard to believe isn’t it? I don’t actually feel like I’ve been married that long (never mind that I don’t feel like I’m old enough to have been married that long). I love Wakizashi more than anything; marriage isn’t simple, but it has been wonderful to us, mostly because we’ve figured it out (if I do say so myself). I want nothing more than to continue being married to him!
Although, I’m surprised at how much I’m still learning. Like the lesson I got this week, for example. Namely: If you want something you must tell him you want it. It may seem like he should know, and you may think you’ve definitely dropped enough hints, but guys just aren’t like us. They are straight-forward creatures - they prefer us to be clear (and to ennunciate well).
At first, I was upset with Wakizashi for not planning a birthday party for me. I thought I had made clear that 30 was actually a pretty significant year to me. I mean, the man knows I love to socialize and get presents. I even dropped a few hints and comments about having thrown him birthday parties. When he told me three days before my birthday that a party wasn’t going to happen I was, well… angry, hurt, upset, sad.
But, then I realized, if I wanted it so much why hadn’t I just come out and asked him to throw me a party? (Or better yet, planned my own party?) We women have some weird desire for our mates to know us so well that they can just “sense out” our desires. We want to have a thought about chocolae and peanut butter ice cream and have him produce it on a whim. I’m not sure why, but it seems that this kind of couple-ESP is supposed to mean the he truly loves us and we truly love him. Or something.
But that’s stupid. It’s nice when it happens; but relationships are all about… relating, we are supposed to learn how to communicate, not how to convey ESP messages to each other. “Hmm… If I move my leg just right, and maybe if I shift this way… yeah, yeah, now he’s sure to think to rub my feet for me!” Then, when he doesn’t comply we get upset and indignant, “How could he not know? Be so inconsiderate as to not even offer to rub my feet!” This is just NOT fair. (Your husband’s are going to send me birthday presents for this post!)
When we talked about it later Wakizashi said he felt really badly that he hadn’t planned a party when I wanted one so much. He really meant it. I knew he felt like he had dropped the ball. And even though he kind of did, because he honestly hadn’t even considered the idea until I mentioned it; the truth is, it’s my own fault. If it meant so much to me then I should have just asked for it.
You know, I’ve noticed that husband’s don’t have a problem asking for things. They’ll readily tell us they want to go out tomorrow night, or say that their feet hurt, will we rub them. Wakizashi has no qualms asking for a back scratch, and if wants something he’ll just come right out and ask for it. In fact, they ask for things so well we actually start to resent them sometimes.
I think that we think our resentment is because they’re asking for things and being selfish, but that’s not true. Deep down inside what we resent is the fact that they ask for (and get) what they want and need so easily. While we, never actually asking, never get the same in return. If he’s not rubbing your back even though you rub his feet every night, nine times out of ten it’s because you didn’t ask him to!
Which is exactly why I’ll end up with a 31st birthday party instead of a 30th. I just happened to ask a few days too late!
Woo Hoo! I love birthdays. I love parties, and people, and presents! (I almost never get parties or people, but I always get a nice present from Wakizashi.)
In honor of my upcoming festivities, I would like to share with you an odd little rant.
On Sunday I was hanging out in the bookstore (where better?) flipping through an odd book full of questions people had asked and their answers (for some reason I can’t remember the name of the book, but it was by Reader’s Digest). I love these kinds of books, you learn the most fascinating thing. For example, one of the questions was: What’s the difference between women’s razors and men’s razors?
That’s a good question; I’ve never thought of that before! The answer is pretty simple, there are a few minor changes designed to better accomodate women. Our razor handles tend to have a slightly different design making it easier for us to see what we are doing around our hand and the razor, and because we often go for stints without shaving our razors have a little shieldy-thing that makes our long hair stand up so it’s easier to shave.
But, the primary difference is that because women’s hair is finer, and we (apparently) prefer not to be knicked, our razor blades are on a diffferent angle (and now I can’t remember, but they may be a little less sharp too). Men don’t mind being knicked (apparently) and their hair is thicker, so their blades are tilted to give them a closer shave. (Which, I suppose, means that blades advertising “closest shave” will also give more cuts!)
Ok, now comes the little ranty part… After explaining also these fascinating things the book quoted a guy from Schick as saying that despite all the research and work that goes into making razors that are better suited to women’s needs, statistics still show that 80% of women use men’s razors.
Here’s the thing: If women want the closer shave (and the risk of being cut), why would you continue to waste your time and money researching what women should want and not just give us what we actually want? Take a men’s razor, make it pink, and sell it as a women’s razor with the closest shave ever!
I don’t know, it all just seems so simple to me.
There’s no real point to this post, it was just something I was pondering in the shower this morning as I shaved my legs. Now that you can say you learnt something new today I return you to your regularly scheduled surfing.
I just finished reading John Mighton’s The Myth of Ability. John Mighton started a charitable organization that tutors students and teachers in math (in Toronto actually, which is just an hour from where I am), he’s got a system of teaching math that really seems to work. (If you have kids in gr. 8 or lower I highly recommend you look into the book linked above, or visit the JUMP website and look into purchasing the math books they offer.)
I got the book in the first place because The Kung Fu Master really struggles with this one subject; Mighton has confirmed for me one thing I’ve been trying over and over to convince the KFM of: His belief that math is hard, sucks, and too much for him is making all the difference in his struggles. My plan was to see what tips I could pick up, and maybe try the units offered in this book with the KFM to see if that helps him get on with his math this year.
In all the years we’ve been homeschooling (six so far) The Master has jumped forward in every area of education except this one. I know our attitudes haven’t been hleping, but my real frustration has been the complete lack of useful math curriculum. When Mighton laments the lack of explanation for the teacher in math curriculums I know exactly what he’s talking about. They suck. They only serve to reinforce the myths about education that The Myth of Ability was written to debunk.
The book wasn’t introducing any new or revolutionary opinions on education to me; it was more like a hardy “Hear, Hear!” because I’ve seen what he’s talking about to be very true. The only thing I would change is that every place he puts the word “Mathematics” I’d put a more generalized term for any skill or subject people study. I whole heartedly agree that these myths are truly hindering our society at large.
Myth #1: Only some people are smart, other people are less smart (or capable of learning). You are born with an invisible cap on your ability to learn (anything, or some things in some subjects) once you hit that cap there’s nothing that can be done about it.
This myth makes me sick. Why, oh why, do we have this need to create levels of elitism? Everyone has equal potential, equal creativity, equal ability. There is no such thing as a Genius! Math may not come as easily to me as it does to Wakizashi, but that doesn’t mean that a good teacher wouldn’t be able to help me accomplish the same level of understanding as he has.
If you’re wondering why, if this myth isn’t true, then why do you see the evidence of it all the time in our society, even in your own life. That’s because we really believe it to be true and we run our schools and world in a way that supports and creates it. (Can you believe that when Mighton started tutoring in schools teachers actually told him not to even bother trying to teach their slower kids? Now, you tell me, why are the slow kids slow? Because no one even bothers with them.)
But the answer as to why you see the evidence of a ceiling on your ability in your own life is in the next myth:
Myth #2: Certain things are innate, you are either born able or not able, therefore the primary steps shouldn’t be taught because there’s no point teaching someone who wasn’t born with it. You either are or aren’t good at math, art, dance, science, etc…
Puh-lease! My friend told me the other day that she used to dream of being a clothing designer (she tells me this after she told me that she’s decided to go back to school… for human services/counseling). “Well, no offense,” I tell her, “but then, if you are going back to school, why wouldn’t you go for fashion design?”
“I’m not creative like you, you know.”
What? We are all creative! People seem to think that because I paint and draw that I’ve always been a creative artist. But, the truth is, I only started learning these things after I turned 25. Before that, the closest thing I knew to being creative was being jealous of those who were (and that it made people weird).
I can draw beccause I learnt to do it. That’s all there is to it. I’m creative because I learnt to allow myself to try being creative.
If we were only allowed to pursue those things in life that teachers had noticed our ability to excel in I’d be doing… well, nothing. I never really excelled at anything in school. I was only ever an average student (good at learning, but not better than the others at anyone thing). Actually, I used to have a terrible complex about the fact that I wasn’t actually good at anything. (I’m still prone to compare my work to that of others and start to doubt why I (paint, write, speak, you fill in the blank) when they are so much better than me. I’m working on overcoming that, but that’s neither here nor there.)
If you believed that you could learn anything with the right teacher, what would you be learning to do? If you had the ability to become good at anything what would you do?
I think I mentioned in a former post that I’m taking a course in aromatherapy. I’ve officially worked through the first three sections. There were two course options available to me, one of them ended up with certification but meant that I’d need to also work my way through a Physiology and Anatomy unit. (Ick…) In school I sucked in science. I did very well in younger grades, but by highschool I was only just getting by. I wasn’t too excited about choosing to reimmerse myself in the subject, but it seemed worth the effort so here I am, struggling through the skeletol and musculature system.
The funny thing is, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be! It’s not coming to me in a natural flow of Aha! moments, but I am understanding, and learning. The reason, of course, is that I’m teaching myself (and I know myself well enough for that to be effective). I do what I need to to help myself understand the material (slow down, find another source to give more info, highlight, write notes, create a vocab list). I wonder, if I’d had better science teachers (or smaller classes, or…) would I be doing something completely different right now?
Hmmm….
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